Getting in the Groove 1/27/10

The winter rains and clouds have officially rolled away and the blazing sun has shot the temp from the lower forties to the upper seventies! I usually don't like to make people jealous but the days around here are now typically cloudless. Even now, as I'm sitting in our dinning room with the windows open the sunlight is steaming through the trees on our patio. Our dogs are taking a siesta in the shade. Bees are out to investigate the swing set. A slew of birds (probably from Indiana) are poking through the grass that the gardener cut the other day. Yeah, those birds know where to spend the winter. The guavas that we bought yesterday are in our fruit basket and I can smell them from here: tangy and mouth-salivating. This is where I study my Hebrew, Greek, and Spanish during the day. My future office at Faith Baptist Seminary probably won't be able to compare to my parents' dining room in Mexico City.

It's been almost a month since I've posted and vacation has long been over. My family has slid back into their normal groove of things with full throttle. I'm beginning to get a peek behind the curtain of what it's like to be a missionary in Mexico City. Both of my sisters are home schooled and spend all morning doing their school. At that time I take advantage of the quite house and study my languages and other things. Once a week they go to a preschool to teach English. A couple times a week, my littlest sister, nine-year-old Nicole, goes to basketball practice. My mom cleans the house, does laundry, teaches my sisters, cooks, checks facebook, critics and helps my dad in everything he does. She has given me a cooking lesson since I've been here and I'm looking forward to more.

Every week my dad has had a couple Bible studies, a couple counseling sessions, a couple morning jogs for exercise. On a less consistent basis, he also helps Mexico City churches that are falling apart, teaches pastors about Biblical counseling, organizes and leads bi-weekly youth activities. He has taught at conferences in Peru, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and other Mexican cities including Monterrey, Poza Rica, Cancun, and small farming villages. And finally, my dad preaches a wonderful sermon to his church plant every Sunday morning. On top of all that he often cooks hot breakfasts and occasionally spends time with his kids. He is a man busy in the kingdom of God and as far as I can tell, he strives for excellence in all respects.

I've been able to accompany him in many of these activities already and talk to him about ministry in Mexico. What I have found to be interesting is that my dad has mixed feelings about the overall pulse and success of missions in Mexico. I hope to do a little more research before I post on it. So I hope you come back to read what I find out.